The present invention relates to tissue products. More particularly, the invention concerns calendered and embossed tissue products.
There is a recognized desire to create tissue products, particularly rolled tissue products, with enhanced sheet caliper or thickness. Consumers perceive that tissue products with greater sheet caliper are more absorbent and higher quality than otherwise comparable sheets with less caliper.
Embossing is a well-known mechanism to increase sheet caliper, and it also provides an additional benefit by imparting a decorative pattern to the tissue product. These decorative patterns are commonly formed by "spot embossing", which involves discrete embossing elements that are about 0.5 inch by 0.5 inch to about 1 inch by 1 inch in size, and thus from about 0.25 to about 1 square inch in surface area. These discrete embossing elements are typically spaced about 0.5 inch to about 1 inch apart. The spot embossing elements are formed on a pattern roll, which is also referred to as an embossing roll, and are pressed into the tissue sheet.
In addition to increasing sheet caliper, there is also a desire to create rolled tissue products having a greater number of individual sheets per roll. Rolls with a greater number of sheets are desired by consumers because the rolls need to be replaced less frequently.
Nevertheless, the ability of tissue manufacturers to simultaneously increase both sheet caliper and the number of sheets per roll is limited by the size of existing tissue dispensers. Rolls of bathroom tissue, for instance, typically need a roll diameter no greater than about 5 inches in order to fit into conventional dispensers. Particularly for household purposes, the size of dispensers cannot be enlarged because of both aesthetic and practical considerations.
For rolls of embossed tissue having a given diameter, such as 5 inches, the efforts to maximize both sheet caliper and sheet count have resulted in a relatively high tension within the wound roll. This high in-wound tension is disadvantageous because the decorative embossing pattern tends to be distorted and/or pulled out.
Because the decorative effects of the embossing pattern are an important factor in the desirability of the product, tissue manufacturers have taken steps to retain the embossing pattern clarity. One approach has been to reduce the height of the embossing elements. While this approach has proven to be successful, the reduced element height limits the pattern definition that may be achieved. Therefore, what is lacking and needed in the art is a rolled tissue product that has relatively high bulk, relatively high number of sheets per roll, and improved embossing pattern clarity.